Chrome Blocked by Google

byChrome BlogonOctober 17, 2008

I was contacted by someone today who informed me that Google Chrome is blocked in a number of counties. It appears Chrome is not only blocked from download from these locations, but also will not run if it’s used from this IP space even if downloaded by proxy.

Google had this to say:

“In accordance with US export controls and economic sanctions regulations, we are unable to permit the download of Google Chrome in Cuba, Syria, North Korea, Iran, and Sudan.”

Users are presented with this, and no further explanation:

A couple of other Google downloads are also blocked such as Google Talk, GMail Notify and “possibly” Google Toolbar and Google Earth.. Can any readers from these blocked locations confirm these last two?

It does seem rather odd, Google displays Adsense in these countries no problems and “technically” makes advertising revenue in these blocked countries so i don’t see how this is ok with the “Economic Sanction” regulations but making Chrome available isn’t. Also many other Open Source applications, browsers and similar technology from other major US companies isn’t blocked and can be freely downloaded from these sanctioned locations.

In general, a person may not export from the U.S. any goods, technology or services, if that person knows or has reason to know such items are intended specifically for supply, transshipment or re-exportation to Iran. Further, such exportation is prohibited if the exporter knows or has reason to know the U.S. items are intended specifically for use in the production of, for commingling with, or for incorporation into goods, technology or services to be directly or indirectly supplied, transshipped or reexported exclusively or predominately to Iran or the Government of Iran.

Is making something available to download worldwide on the internet “exporting” to a specific country?

Go to the folder with the highest number, usually the one at the very top, just
below the file called LATEST Download the chrome-win32.zip file found inside this folder. Unzip to somewhere on your hard disk and double click chrome.exe to run. Should work anywhere in the world, but I haven’t tried.

icekin: Yes there are workarounds, and that’s probably the best one thanks.

Ian: That’s what i don’t know, Firefox and similar products from US companies can be downloaded by these sanctioned countries with no restrictions. So i don’t understand why Google is blocking these things, yet they display Adsense in these countries and generate revenue, plus many other of their services are even translated to accommodate use in these sanctioned countries.

Also is making something freely available to download on the net classified as “Exporting” to that country? If i put up a theme for anyone to download am i “Exporting technology or services to Cuba, Sudan etc”?

If Google is required to do this by law, so be it but why Google and not the thousands of other US companies offering unrestricted download of similar technology?

Google can do whatever they wish regarding their products. It boils down to legal mumbo jumbo that lawyers can do to bring you down. Just because other products are not doing something similar (not restricting a product) does not mean that Google or your company should. Believe me, you don’t want to play around with the law or people who understand how to use the law to their advantage.

I think this is what Google is trying to avoid by restricting their products to certain countries.

Under the rather stupid laws of our country, encryption software (such as SSL) counts not as protected speech, but as munitions, and is subject to export restrictions. Thus any risk-averse entity must pretend to try to keep their “weapons” away from countries we don’t like. It’s a good thing to – imagine the horrible things that could happen if foreigners somehow obtained SSL software!

Cryptographic algorithms and their implementations are covered under the export laws of the US. Encrypted connections are not. Breaking SSL is second nature for the NSA with all their processing power — but I’m sure they would really hate their jobs if every Muslim extremist had the latest and greatest encryption software on his computer and used it to send his buddies messages (intel, attack plans, meetings, etc). Unless Chrome has any of this, it’s a case of Google covering its ass.

It works like this. By making the software available for download in a country where we are blocking trade, it is considered the equivalent of providing “goods”. So, downloads are not allowed.

However, just because Google shows an advertisement to someone browsing from Cuba, for instance, this is not breaking the trade agreement. After all, an ad is nothing more than a link. Google is allowed to make money from this transaction because the money itself is being paid by the advertiser (who is not in Cuba) as a result of the action taken by the individual in Cuba. This is ironic, because whatever the advertiser is advertising isn’t likely allowed to be sold to that ad-clicker.

There is a very good chance, though, that due to this, Google does not charge for clicks on ads from countries where exports are not allowed. Just because you see an ad, and just because you click on an ad, does not absolutely guarantee that Google will make money from this, or that the advertiser will have to pay. Google credits back money to their advertisers all the time for clicks that they deem as being fraudulent, and for clicks that originate from disallowed sources. For instance, if a Google employee clicks an ad, it won’t count. So, there’s a chance ad activity in disallowed countries might not be counted. But, again, even if they are, it wouldn’t break the trade agreements. Providing software, although free, WOULD break the trade agreement.

If you have problem in downloading google chrome, in any country just use Iron, Iron is free, Secure and do not have any spy software, like google update that set an id for you when you first run this software.

That export restriction was the reaseon, the source code of pgp (pretty good privacy) was published in book form, send some europe country (books can be exported freely) and scanned back to code. The book was published optimal for scanning purposes.
Now having the source code in a country in europe, export restrictions to the code do not apply….

Google is absolutely right and is just following the law. Google is a big target, with lots of people watching their every move and none to happy to cry foul if they make even a minor misstep. That’s why Google has to be careful in following the letter of the law–dotting every i and crossing every t.

There are good reasons that the US, often at the behest of the UN, has imposed export regulations. But if you’re upset about Chrome being unavailable, then the proper course of action isn’t to blame Google. It’s to petition the government for redress.

Countries not counties. It is reasonable to say that Google should not provide open source to the listed countries, and would say the list should be far longer. The listed countries, along with many others, do not follow the standard licensing regulations that guide software distribution, and therefore should not be able to participate any facet of software distribution, including open source. George Bush Rules!!

Before then, Netscape and Microsoft (for IE) couldn’t export full-strength SSL from the US, and we foreigners had to make do with 48-bit (or was it 56-bit?) SSL, unless we used Opera (written in Norway) or a German-written app that upgraded the SSL in Netscape. Fun days :o)

As far as I am concerned, Google is doing a pretty good job as far as dealing with the US Government is concerned… I should remind everyone that has or plans to bash Google for this that a year or two ago, when the US feds wanted user search information, companies such as Yahoo! and MSN gave up that information, it was only google who persisted against and refused totally any user statistics to the feds, thereby “saving” privacy of sorts…
If blocking the browser has to be done, then so it is, and as someone pointed out, just go for the open source Chromium which is pretty much the same, and benefit out of that…

I had a chance to work with some of the Syrian IT guys.. From them, I could know that, though there is a ban, all priated software programs are available freely in that market. When there is a restriction, people will have more interest in those. I could find many good guys in software related subjects. They know in and out of Microsoft Technologies, as they get it all for $1 in the market. No one to control such pirated market there.

Thanx for (14) M.Y FOR LEADING ME TO IRON … Iam leaving in Sudan.. How silly is google, come to Sudan and u will find PEPSI and COCA COLA in every grocery or even small shops.. They r just cheating when they say sanctions.. people here can simply say ” GOOGLE GO to HELL” !!!! my dears Hav a nice time !

He’s right, you can’t download Google Talk, Google Chrome, or any other Google programs using a Syrian IP address. I used to be able to download Chrome using Tor, but now even that isn’t possible. They seem to have been able to change the installer so as to check the local IP address of the computer and ignoring the proxy address.

Right now the only web browser I can use AND update is Firefox. Opera is available but I prefer both Chrome and Firefox over Opera. As for Chromium, because it is on the Google Code website, I can’t download it.